Zedge has announced an approximately $7.5 million direct insider investment and appointed Morris Berger as Chief Executive Officer as the company accelerates development of DataSeeds.AI into a larger artificial intelligence data business.
The financing will be led by Vice Chairman Howard Jonas, who is expected to materially increase his ownership position. Board member Elliott Gibber and another company insider will also participate.
Berger, currently CEO of Zero Media and the former CEO of IDT Entertainment, will become Zedge CEO effective October 1, 2026.
Current CEO Jonathan Reich will transition to President and Chief Operating Officer.
DataSeeds.AI provides managed, multimodal data creation and related services for AI developers and enterprises.
Zedge originally built the business using capabilities from its existing creator communities, mobile applications and content assets. The platform can source and create customer-specific datasets using Zedge’s communities, dedicated mobile applications, websites and professional production resources.
The company recently signed its first six-figure contract for model evaluations and said another agentic AI project requires annotated first-person video designed to teach AI systems how humans interact with physical environments.
Zedge cited an industry estimate projecting the AI training dataset market will grow from approximately $3.9 billion in 2026 to $16.3 billion by 2033, representing a 22.6% compound annual growth rate.
The insider financing will support recruiting, technology and infrastructure investments, acquisitions or licensing of specialized datasets and potential co-acquisitions.
The investment includes 90% warrant coverage with five-year warrants carrying an exercise price equal to 110% of the purchase price. The securities will not be listed for trading.
Zedge said it will continue paying its quarterly cash dividend but has suspended share repurchases while making the DataSeeds investment.
The company’s existing businesses generated approximately $1.2 million of free cash flow during the third quarter of fiscal 2026, up 55% year over year, and ended the quarter with approximately $19.7 million of cash and no debt.
KEY QUOTES:
“What they have built, combined with the opportunity they see to expand DataSeeds into additional parts of the AI data workflow, has materially increased my conviction in the opportunity in front of Zedge and led me to become more actively involved.”
Howard Jonas, Vice Chairman Of Zedge
“The opportunity now is to build the team, customer relationships and technical capabilities needed to scale DataSeeds into a much larger business.”
Morris Berger, Incoming Chief Executive Officer Of Zedge
